March 29, 2015. Posted by Rhonda Hamilton.

Yes, WBGO golfs. And when we found out we were just minutes from one of the best courses in the world - Sun City's Gary Player Country Club - the golfers on our trip couldn't pass up the opportunity to play. We were in for a few surprises, to say the least!

Look how excited Simon and I are to tee off!

We’re used to seeing deer on the fairway in New Jersey. In South Africa, that's not a deer - it's an impala.

The animal that rules the green in South Africa is the mongoose - they are too cute!

This is strictly a walking course. Since no golf carts are allowed, each of us is assigned a caddie. My caddie, London, turns out to be a jazz fan who listens to a weekly South African jazz radio show.

Lucky for me, he is also an excellent reader of the greens. Here he is, helping me avoid an ibis!

The resort has a second Gary Player-designed 18-hole course, the Lost City. It's famous for the 38 crocodiles in the water at its 13th hole.

March 25, 2015. Posted by Tim Wilkins.

I learned today Soweto is an acronym for South West Townships. It’s a sprawling, culturally rich and economically diverse collection of communities. With well over a million people, Soweto makes up half of the population of Johannesburg.

“The Soweto Uprising” began on June 16, 1976 when Hector Peterson, only 12 years old, was killed when South African police fired into a crowd of students.

Over the next two days, perhaps as many as 1200 more black Africans were killed -- 89 under the age of 20 and 12 under the age of 7.

The students had gathered to protest the State’s declaration that Afrikaans be the official language of instruction in African schools.

This now-iconic image of Hector being carried by 18-year-old Mbuyasi Makhubo was taken by news photographer Sam Nzima, and provoked an international outcry.

Both were forced into hiding because of harassment by the police. The young girl is in the photo is Hector’s 17 year old sister, Antoinette. She later worked at this museum as a guide.

Our day includes a delicious lunch at Chez Alina, one of the many thriving businesses in Soweto.

Alina set up the restaurant in her home. The walls are covered in works of art. We dine to the sounds of a jazz trio brought in especially for our WBGO group. Good food, good music – everyone is all smiles.

Visitors are randomly assigned tickets as “white” or “non-white,” then must enter through separate turnstiles, as was the practice under the now-defunct Apartheid laws.

The museum offers vivid and heart-wrenching details of Apartheid’s dehumanizing and violent history. It also turns the page to the new era ushered in by Nelson Mandela in 1994. Mandela was a beloved leader and is the father of the “Rainbow Nation” we see today.

There’s a wall where Apartheid Museum visitors are encouraged to write how they’re going to make a world a better place, in memory of Mandela.

WBGO's Simon Rentner asks Shirley Hatcher, a member of our group, what she wrote on the wall. She emotionally responds that “She’s home” - and that she’ll share the museum’s lessons with her children.

The memory of Mandela – or Madiba, as he was affectionately known - is everywhere. We visit the Soweto home he briefly shared with his wife Winnie after his release from prison in 1990. A few blocks away, there’s the home of another Nobel Peace Prize winner - Archbishop Desmond Tutu!

Mandela gave his first speech after his release from prison at Johannesburg's FNB Stadium. In 2013, his memorial service was also held at this site.

Completed in 1989, it is also known as Soccer City, and was renovated and expanded 20 years later to accommodate the World Cup. Locals call it “The Calabash” because its shape resembles an African gourd.

You have to see this stadium in person to appreciate its massiveness. It’s the largest in Africa, and seats almost 100,000.

March 22, 2015. Posted by Simon Rentner.

We did it! Rhonda Hamilton, twenty-five lucky WBGO members and I are super-excited to be in the Rainbow Nation, South Africa.

This is the first peek at our adventures, so buckle in and enjoy the ride!

Our first stop: Lesedi Cultural Village. "Lesedi" means "place of light" in Basotho, one of South Africa's main tribal languages.

This UNESCO World Heritage Site is in the heart of South Africa's characteristic bushveld and rocky hills, about 50 kilometers northwest of Johannesburg. It offers a peek into the lifestyles of the Basotho, Zulu, Xhosa, Pedi, and Ndebele tribes.

Our charismatic tour guide gives us a quick lesson in Zulu, the dominant ethnic group in South Africa - about 80 percent of the population.

He also explains that in some tribes, a man is allowed more than one wife - depending on how many cows he owns. Our WBGO group is more women than men, but we all scoff when our guide says one powerful Zulu leader had sixty wives.

One of the highlights, or should I say, “high sights” of our tour is this tall gentleman, who stands guard in front of Lesedi's Zulu village. On cue, we collectively chant a request for entry, in the Zulu tongue. He grants our request.

Some of the ladies linger and repeat this exercise; I hear one of them say, “That fine man can guard my village any day of the week.”

Our guide offers us a staple dish, which may surprise many Westerners. Caterpillars! Yes, these creepy crawlers are very high in protein, rooty, and can be delicious when sautéed with onions and peppers.

Most in our group decide to pass on this culinary adventure - but I can say these salty, chewy treats can be good - as long as you erase the image of a creepy crawler from your mind.

Our first adventure ends with a thunderous bang – a show-stopping performance of rhythm, song, and dance by the village's folkloric dance troupe. To watch a video of this, click on the image above.

The Lesedi Village shows us “the light” of how our recent, and maybe even our ancient, ancestors lived, in the Cradle of Humankind. It should be noted that this locale has produced some of the oldest hominid fossils ever found, some dating back as far as 3.5 million years.

Yes, we’ve arrived in The Motherland, indeed. And we can’t wait to see more!